MODERN HVDC THYRISTOR VALVES

Henrik Stomberg, Bernt Abrahamsson and Olaf Saksvik

ABB Power Systems
S-771 80 Ludvika, Sweden

1 Introduction
The modern HVDC converter valve is air insulated, water
cooled and suspended indoors in a controlled environment. The
four single valve functions connected to the same AC phase in the
12-pulse bridge are mounted on top of each other in a quadruple
valve arrangement. The valve arresters are similarly suspended
adjacent to the valve structure, connected directly to the terminals of the valves. The quadruple valve is designed to meet seismic requirements. Field experience as well as full scale tests during the commissioning stage have proven the adequacy of the
seismic design tools.
The thyristor is always custom designed. It is specified to
withstand all electrical and mechanical stresses during type testing and operation. Optimized thyristor design is used to reduce
the on-state losses. Due to improved di/dt and dV/dt capability
of the semiconductors, the damping circuit arrangement has been
simplified. 9 kV devices are currently employed in HVDC plants,
and the 5 high current device developed will be installed in a
commercially operated plant during the autumn of 1996.
The modern quadruple valve structure allows thyristors to
have up to 10 kV forward blocking voltage. Modern computer
tools and full scale dielectric tests have resulted in design guidelines for proper clearance to valve hall walls and adjacent structures for applications also above 600 kV DC voltage.

2 Converter Valve Structure

Fig. 1 Leyte -Luzon quadruple

valve in test hall.

The quadruple valve

structure is suspended from
the ceiling of the valve hall via
porcelain insulators. At the
top and bottom of the structure, a metallic framework ensures the mechanical stability
of the valves. Between the
frameworks, the different levels in the valve are mechanically fixed by means of
threaded epoxy rods. The design allows easy assembly in
addition to giving a balanced
design with regard to earthquake considerations.
The series connected
thyristors in each valve function are mechanically arranged in modular units. Each

modular unit is served by one valve reactor module. The modular

units are arranged in different layers within the structure, each
layer containing four thyristor modules and four reactor modules.
Within each level, the four thyristor and reactor modules are
arranged in a rectangular shape, with two thyristor and reactor
modules on each side of a central shaft running vertically through
the valve structure. In this shaft, workman platforms are positioned on selected levels for easy access and maintenance purposes. The platforms are made of insulating material and represent a part of the mechanical structure.
Cooling water distribution pipes and light guides for signal
transmission are shaped to maintain demands for creepage distance between the different voltage levels in the valve. The potential of the cooling water in the distribution pipes is controlled
by means of electrolytically inert electrodes (platinum).

3 Seismic Design
Extensive experience has
been gained of installing converter valves in seismically
active areas. The design with a
suspended valve structure has
proven to be very suitable with
regard to seismic considerations. An advanced model for
the standardized design of the
valve structure has been developed, based on the finite element program RAMSES, developed by ABB Corporate
Research. Verification of the
model has been performed by
snap-back tests on complete
quadruple valves.

Fig. 2
Simulated
dynamic
behaviour
during
earthquake.

Umax may be either single or repetitive stress, in forward or

reverse direction. Typically, the calculation of the direct single
maximum voltage (VDSM) is based on the arrester protective level. The uneven voltage distribution factor includes tolerances in
damping circuit components, thyristor recovery charge and difference in resistance of cooling water circuits. The redundancy
factor equals the total number of thyristors divided by the number
of thyristors remaining when all the redundant thyristors have
failed.
The maximum repetitive stresses are to take the commutation overshoots into account, also under dynamic overvoltage
conditions. Operation at high firing angles must be considered.
Although limited in duration, operation at high firing angle plus
maximum dynamic overvoltage results in maximum repetitive
stresses. The valve arresters usually have an attenuating effect on
the commutation overshoots for this operating mode.
It is common practice within the industry to add an insulation margin on top of the maximum calculated stresses for electrical equipment, converter valves included. However, there are

kW

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7000

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6000

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3000

600

2000

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Power handling

Blocking

1000
0
1960

70

capability

voltage

80

90

Fig. 3 Thyristor blocking voltage and power

handling capability.

YST 90

where kd is the uneven voltage distribution factor and kr is

the redundancy factor.

YST 60

(1)

YST 60

Vthy = Umax x kd x kr

YST 35
YST 45

The converter valves and its components is to withstand all

kinds of current and voltage stresses during steady-state operation as well as faults, not to forget the stresses imposed during
valve type testing. The valve stresses are determined from the
main circuit data for the transmission, such as maximum ideal noload voltage (Udi0max), maximum continuous direct current (Idmax)
and the arrester protective levels. The dielectric stresses of the
thyristors are commonly divided into single and repetitive stresses; single referring to fault conditions.
The basic design formula for the thyristor voltage parameters is:

The valve's electric design allows a fully optimized thyristor. The semiconductors are optimized for each HVDC project
with respect to voltages and especially the on-state losses.
Very high voltage thyristors have been available for some
time. Today it is economically feasible to use these in commercial HVDC plants. Improved processing techniques and more
sophisticated wafer design have increased the voltage withstand
capability as well as the capability of handling voltage and current derivatives. Today, ABB uses 9 kV devices for plants with
current ratings in the lower range, e.g. the Leyte-Luzon project in
the Philippines.
A higher voltage rating means a thicker silicon wafer. For a
given area and current, the increase in thickness means higher
losses and reduced surge current capability. In addition, increased
DC current demands result in higher valve short circuit current.
These demands combined have led to demands for a larger wafer
area.
Recently, the 5, 3.6 kA, 8.8 kV thyristor was developed.
Being a major development step, a test installation will be made in
a commercial HVDC plant, besides the extensive test programme
at the manufacturing plant. The approach of field testing is in line
with ABB's philosophy, following test valves at Sylmar (USA),
Vester Hassing (Denmark) and Stenkullen (Sweden) converter
stations.
The power handling capability of HVDC thyristors is growing rapidly, as shown in Fig. 3. The failure rate is low, and has to
date never resulted in a forced outage at any plant that has individual thyristor protection. According to the latest Cigr statistics, the average annual failure rate for the 35,000 devices installed
is only 0.12%.

YST 14

5 Basic Electrical Design

6 The Thyristor

YST 8

The distance between a converter valve and its surroundings

cannot be determined from voltage magnitude and wave shape
alone. Certain factors must be taken properly into account, e.g
the physical appearance of the valve structure and also the adjacent structures, due to combined electric fields. For example, a
corona shield experiences electric fields vertically and horizontally in relation to adjacent corona shields, but is also subject to the
field towards the valve hall walls or other valve structures.
The decisive external stress for a quadruple valve is usually
an overvoltage of switching type. HVDC converters of 500 kV
and higher have insulation levels well above 1000 kV. Increasing
thyristor voltage capability results in higher layer-to-layer voltage. These factors taken into consideration, studies and tests have
been performed to ensure proper behaviour of the quadruple valve
during type testing and operation.
Using a Boundary Element Method program, linked to the
CAD computer, combinations of field strengths and external distances have been used to optimize the corona shields. The calculations have been verified through extensive testing for a range
of combinations of external distances and applied switching surge.
In this connection, verified design tools have been obtained to
optimize valve hall distances for plants with all DC ratings, even
beyond 600 kV.

benefits in reducing the insulation margin for a converter valve, in

the forward direction. The thyristors employed inherently have a
higher voltage capability in the reverse than in the forward direction, approximately 10%. It is feasible to reduce the insulation
margin in the forward direction due to the very reliable protective
circuits in todays thyristor control units (valve electronics). This
philosophy has been used by ABB in most HVDC projects over
the last ten years.

YST 5

4 The Valve in the Valve Hall

2000

7 Thyristor Control Unit (TCU)

The thyristor control units constitute the optical/electrical
interface in the valve between the control system and the thyristors. A robust and independent design is essential for the TCU in
order to ensure reliable in-service performance.
The main features of the TCUs are:
metal encapsulation, providing good protection against
electromagnetic interference
electronic components chosen for high reliability
quick recharge of energy for electrical gate pulses
very accurate protective firing function with dV/dtdependence
protective firing of de-energised valve in the event of both
switching and lightning surges
supplementary protective firing function during the
sensitive thyristor recovery interval
thyristor status monitoring - including indication of
protective firing.
More than 20,000 units of the same basic design are operating in HVDC plants today.

Fig. 5 Thyristor module.

Cooling of the thyristors is achieved by heat sinks, designed
to reduce the thermal resistance between thyristor wafer and the
cooling medium to a minimum. The increased power handling
capability of the devices means higher on-state losses, and consequently the thermal resistance becomes an increasingly important
parameter as the impact on the cooling system design is large.
The improved dV/dt capability of the thyristors results in
one RC damping circuit, with an additional DC dividing branch.
Power to the thyristor control unit (TCU) is extracted from the
RC-damping circuit. The resistors are mounted in contact with
the thyristor heat sinks to allow easy removal of the heat dissipated in the resistors. The capacitors are of dry type.
The routine tests include electrical and thermo-mechanical
checks, as well as testing of the firing and protective functions of
the thyristor control unit. After valve assembly is completed at
site, all thyristor positions are checked once more using the high
voltage Valve Test Unit, in an automated sequence.
Valve reactors are used to limit current and voltage derivatives for the thyristors. The reactors are of robust design, with the
active parts totally embedded in insulation material. This design
reduces mechanical stresses on the active parts of the reactor,
while improving the thermal properties. Dissipated heat is efficiently removed by the cooling water through the hollow main
current conductor.

9 Valve Cooling

Fig. 4 Thyristor control unit.

8 The Thyristor Module

The modern ABB valve uses the well-proven concept of
physical modules containing six thyristor positions, allowing easy
handling during assembly and upon site installation. The thyristor package is rigidly clamped together by means of two glass
fibre reinforced clamping slings, with disc springs allowing thermal movements. The clamping slings have proven to have excellent performance in the field.

The losses dissipated in the thyristor valves are removed by

a cooling medium, this usually being deionized water. A single
circuit system is used today, shown schematically in Fig. 6. The
main circuit includes an extra pump for redundancy, outdoor coolers, a deaeration vessel (gas scrubber) and interconnecting piping. A few per cent of the water is passed from the main flow into
the water treatment circuit, with two ion exchangers and an expansion vessel.
The two ion exchangers are connected in series. Besides taking care of water volume changes with temperature, the expansion vessel features level gauges for leakage detection and also
serves as an oxygen removal device. The cooling system protection software includes three different leakage detection principles, one of which captures leakages less than one litre per hour.
The thyristor wafer has a limited thermal capacity. Thus, the
maximum design temperature of the thyristor is to be chosen
sufficiently low to allow a valve short circuit to occur without
loss of thyristor life. This design temperature must not be exceeded under any operating conditions.

DEAERATION VESSEL

11 High Angle Supervision (HAS)

PUMP

Some HVDC transmissions are basically used to transmit

bulk power. The converters are operated continuously at low firing and extinction angles, and only occasionally are higher angles
used. The HAS concept was developed to increase flexibility in
meeting reactive power demands.
The HAS concept is based on continuous on-line monitoring/calculation of valve parameters to ensure safe operation. However, it is not necessary to limit each individual operation parameter, which results in a more optimized utilization. Parameters
such as valve arrester voltage, thyristor wafer temperature and
snubber resistor losses are indirectly monitored. In principle, the
instantaneous power dissipation is calculated for all sensitive
components. The energy absorption is then compared to inversetime characteristics.
The HAS concept was introduced for the Kontek transmission, greatly improving the response to sudden changes in reactive power demands.

THYRISTOR
VALVE
EXPANSION
VESSEL

Deionizer
filter

Deionizer
filter

N+1
COOLERS

Fig. 6 Single circuit cooling system with

water treatment circuit.
The thyristor wafer design temperature, thyristor losses and
the maximum ambient temperature determine the size of the cooling system.
In steady-state conditions, the difference in temperature between the wafer and the water is determined by the relationship:
T = P x Rth,

(2)

P being the thyristor losses and Rth the thermal resistance.

Reducing the thermal resistance results in lower T, allowing higher water temperature with constant wafer temperature.
Hence the operating temperature of the cooling system is higher, allowing a dry type, single circuit, closed loop system to be
used in warmer climates.
In areas where freezing could occur, pure glycol is added to
the water. Should the freezing risk be of a temporary nature,
electrical heaters are instead provided to heat the water on those
rare occasions when the temperature is below zero and the converter is not operating.
If overload capacity is specified for transmissions at all ambient temperatures, the cooling system must be enlarged accordingly. Then the steady-state operating temperature of the thyristor must be reduced. During the overload the wafer design temperature must not be exceeded.

10 Testing
Apart from the routine tests, one complete thyristor valve
for each HVDC project is type tested according to one of the
standards IEC 700 or IEEE 857.
The dielectric type test programme includes DC and AC
tests with measurement of partial discharge, and impulse tests
with standard wave shapes. These tests are usually performed on
both a single valve and the quadruple valve arrangement.
The operational tests, i.e.,, the current related tests, are performed in an in-house back-to-back test circuit, with one sixpulse bridge acting as rectifier and the other as inverter. With this
type of test circuit, passive generation of the voltage and current
waveshapes is affected, which ensures that appropriate test stress
conditions are obtained. The circuit is fed from a 1000 MVA
short circuit generator. The reactive power balance is taken care
of by filters and shunt banks. Today the MACH control system is
used for the back-to-back circuit, so that power ramps, control
angle shifts and sequences of these, etc., can be pre-programmed.

12 Fire safety
The design of the thyristor valves includes a variety of insulating materials which are needed to fulfil requirements regarding electrical insulation and mechanical stability. For this purpose, both reinforced and unreinforced polymeric materials are
used, due to the useful combination of good dielectric properties,
low density and adequate moulding and machinability. Materials
reinforced with higher contents of glass fibre have mechanical
properties comparable to aluminium and sometimes steel. Hence
there are obvious reasons for using polymer based materials and
there is no realistic substitute for them.
The design philosophy for fire safety of ABB thyristor valves
was developed in the early nineties and adheres to the more recent conclusions from Cigr work (TF 14.01.04). The development has included extensive analysis of possible scenarios, selection and testing of suitable materials and components, and testing of complete thyristor valve structures. The design is based on
the following:
Only a minimum number of electrical connections,
carefully designed with large safety margins. All main
circuit connections made with bolted or welded joints.
Selection of valve material that cannot maintain a fire, i.e.,
the materials have low flammability and are self-extinguishing.
Sectionalization of the valve by fire-retardant barriers,
both horizontally and vertically.
Early fire detection system, sensing an incipient fire
condition.

Fig. 7 Horizontal fire barriers separating layers and vertical

barriers between thyristor positions.

The actual design of the ABB valve has successfully undergone practical fire tests in full scale test set-ups.
General experience concerning fire propagation, in combination with experience from practical fire tests in valve mockups, reveals that a fire mainly propagates vertically. Sectionalization of a structure by means of horizontal barriers, combined with
effective gas evacuation, is the most suitable design with regard
to fire safety.
The design of the ABB thyristor valve structure is thus
based on sectionalization between adjacent valve layers by means
of horizontal fire barriers, in combination with an open vertical
shaft in the centre of the valve. The open shaft serves as evacuation channel for smoke and gases, and ensures fast detection of an
incipient fire condition by the smoke detection system sensors
positioned right above each valve structure. The service platforms positioned in the middle shaft are made semipermeable to
allow smoke to pass through.
For the structural parts of the thyristor valves, major efforts
have been devoted to increasing the fire withstand properties of
the materials, without cutting back on the demands regarding
mechanical and electrical properties.
New polymeric materials, containing Alumina Tri Hydrate
(Al(OH)3) as a fire retardant additive, have been developed within
the ABB Group for this purpose. Materials and manufacturing
methods are specially designed to suit thyristor valve applications.

In the modern ABB valve, the number of components and

electrical connections are reduced to a minimum.
The thyristor valves are suspended from the ceiling via high
temperature resistant insulators. The suspension insulators are
glued to the brackets by Portland Cement and have been proven
through testing to be capable of withstanding temperatures higher
than those calculated as maximum levels in the event of fire.
The light guide bundles are protected by a channel made of
fire retardant material (pultruded glass fibre reinforced polyester). Furthermore, the channels are sectionalized by using fire
retardant sealing bags along cable jackets in channels and inlets.

13 Conclusion
The modern HVDC converter valve has been designed for
high reliability and availability. Essentially based on the earlier
well proven generation, the modern valve adds features such as:
* implemented fire safety measures in valve design and
choice of materials
* improved plant utilization through the HAS concept
* simplified voltage sharing circuits
* single circuit cooling system
* improved water leakage detection
* higher thyristor voltage and current rating.